James May
James May is a TV show on BBC4. James May explores the engineering marvels of objects by putting them back together again. The program has been available since 2025. A total of 13 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in January 2026.
Last episode
50:00
50:00James May
James tackles a 1957 Bakelite dial telephone - 211 pieces, most of them very small indeed, must be reassembled in the correct order if this phone is ever to ring again.
Catching up on James May?
Don't want to miss an episode anymore? Set up a free alarm and receive an email when new episodes are available. Handy!
1:00:00James continues his quest with an electric guitar - 147 pieces must be reassembled in a process entailing soldering, precision screwdrivers and fiddly electronics.
1:05:00James tries to put a 1959 Suffolk Colt petrol lawnmower, a device which helped make mowing accessible to many by producing a smaller and affordable machine, back together.
Series 2
50:00
50:00James May tries to create a Christmas miracle by making it snow, invents a Christmas tree-decorating blunderbuss gun, and discovers the easiest way to wrap presents.
50:00James May continues his quest to reskill the modern male by attempting to prove the impossible - that an Englishman can take a penalty and score - in front of 20,000 Germans.
1:00:00It's back to the future for James May - he asks what happened to the cutting-edge motors our forebears promised, including fanciful steam cars and ludicrous jet turbines.
50:00James May continues his quest to reskill modern man as he and Oz Clarke navigate their way across Dartmoor - with a team of trackers in hot pursuit - while handcuffed together.
50:00James May continues his epic quest to reskill the modern male by reuniting a former teenage rock band for their first concert in 20 years, felling a tree, and hunting ghosts.
James May takes a rare and privileged flight 70,000 feet above Earth in a U2 spy plane to a place known in the Air Force as the 'space equivalent zone' or the 'edge of space'.
Series 3 1:20:00
1:20:00James May continues his epic quest to reskill the modern male as he attempts a risky stunt involving an ailing seaside town and a great big monster.
1:15:00James May goes in search of a wedding ring lost in the 1970s, the team launches its very own pirate radio station, and there are a couple of amazing inventions on offer.
1:00:00James takes to the air to help an Oxfordshire town with its diamond jubilee celebration and also tests whether it is possible to make your own luck.
1:00:00James's team try to catch a bolt of lightning, and James visits the Rock Paper Scissors World Championships and a Welsh coal mine while also recruiting some feline crime fighters.